


Majesty

by Falcolmreynolds



Series: Shadows over Sornieth [9]
Category: Flight Rising
Genre: A little bit of gore, AHAHAHA, Body Horror, Character Death, Emperor Dragon, Gen, because it's very graphic it's just gently worded, it's soft but i'm still tagging it as graphic, now you see, what I've been messing with
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2021-01-05 18:07:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21212855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Falcolmreynolds/pseuds/Falcolmreynolds
Summary: This one takes place in the far-distant pass. But it's here in the story where you understand it.





	Majesty

The crackle of flame popped against the background roar of the sea. Over the assembled Watch, the rippling starlight shimmering up from the Strand through the Weft and down from the heavens bore witness.

"Its position has changed again," reported Ancillary Scoutmistress Gha'agya, a white-eyed fae with wings that moved almost faster than anyone could see. "It's making for Sornieth. It is traveling directly for the nearest coastline."

The information, while not unexpected, was unwelcome, and sent a shuddering wave of whispers through the assembled host.

"At this rate," Gha'agya continued, eyes fixed on the sheaf of oversized papers clutched in her miniscule claws, "it will reach the shallower ocean around Sornieth within the week, and the coast within two."

"We must entreat the deities for help!" burst out Emeri, a younger mirror, bright blue with darker wings, recently brought into the Watch from the Windsinger's service. She was an apprentice to the Watch-captains, and full of passion and spirit, drive to protect her home. She was a warrior, and a good friend. Loyal. "They will have to help us against a foe like this!"

"No." The rumble came from Khal Coralhelm, an orange and yellow guardian. He shook his head. "The deities will not answer our call."

"Not even for this?!" Emeri swung her head to search his eyes. "This - this is a threat to everyone. To everything!"

"But it is not a threat," murmured Bib, a deep violet Skydancer with equally dark eyes, "that we are incapable of neutralizing." She fanned her feathered wings out and folded them back in.

"An _ emperor, _" Emeri said, in disbelief, "is not something we can fight!"

"You are correct," Bib said, nodding. "But we do not need to fight it. We must only prevent it from entering our homeland. We must only lock it from passing through the barrier, and Sornieth will be safe."

"We can't do that," Emeri said. "We - how? How could we?"

Bib glanced over, exchanging a glance with a few of the other Watch-captains. One of them, an ancient-looking pearlcatcher with a crack running down the pearl he kept in a sling by his side, nodded to her and cleared his throat.

"There is a way," he said, his voice rough and scratchy. "We could brand it, with the mark of our kind, so that it may never pass through the barrier that the deities themselves put into place to guard our realm."

_ "Brand-" _ Emeri shook her head, hissing and recoiling. "We are just dragons! We can't hope to do that."

"She's right," piped up Spoozy, an even younger spiral, pale gray and dark green with delicate patterns of pink. He was small, but sharp, highly tactical, without being overzealous and fanatical, and that's why he'd been moved from the Stormcatcher's army to the Watch. "We can't get near it. It's far too large and dangerous. And it surely won't submit to any ceremony we try to force upon it."

Beside Spoozy, his elder brother, Leafgloom, nodded silently. Spoozy glanced to him, then back to the captains. “We simply cannot do this by force.”

"We do not have to," said a soft voice, from the shadows cast by the flame. Everyone glanced over - it was Watch-captain Icorax who had spoken, an aging Imperial, eyes bright as the fire and burning with the same intensity even after all his years in the order. "We cannot. We know this. And so we will not try. But we will force it to submit to our brand nonetheless."

"How?" demanded Emeri. "How?"

Icorax shifted his gaze up from the bonfire. "It is an Emperor," he said. "It will absorb the form of any of my kin who die near it. Should one of those kin be marked with our brand, then so shall it be."

"Wait - are you suggesting -"

With a huff of breath, Icorax interrupted the mirror. "I am announcing my resignation as Watch-captain," he said, "for I have a more important path to walk than leading this honored and holy order."

This announcement was, as he'd expected, met by an uproar. "Ic - captain, _ no!" _ Emeri cried out, breaking her position to rush over towards him, claws digging at the stone. "You can't - you, we - we need you here!"

"But Sornieth needs me more," Icorax murmured, unmoving.

Bib nodded. "He has decided," she agreed.

"I'll go instead," said another Imperial, pushing her way forward - younger, with bright blue scales and eyes to match, sparking with energy. Buttercup, he remembered. That was her name. She pulled her head up high and swallowed, the Watch brand on her chest glowing softly. "I'll go. I - I can.... I can do it."

"No." Icorax shook his head. "I will not cut short the life of any young dragon under my command. My time is ending, after all; I pass the title of Captain on, to whomever is selected by the Grace once I am gone."

"But-" Emeri sat down, crests laid flat against her head. "But you're our Captain."

"No one is forever," Icorax said gently.

Emeri said nothing, hanging her head.

Icorax cleared his throat. Bib spread and flapped her wings; the air buffeting the bonfire sent up a shower of sparks, quieting the crowd.

"Tomorrow," Icorax said, "I will depart. I will follow the stars to our enemy, and I will attack it. Alone. I will not survive. I will brand this monster with our mark, and when it arrives in Sornieth, it will be your job, your responsibility to keep it as far from the coast as you can. It will not be able to pass through, but it can still do damage from a distance. Do not think that a brand will stop it from causing damage to the land."

He stepped back. It was now the duty of the Watch to figure out the best way to keep this wretched beast of an enemy away from their beloved homeland. Their job to maintain the barrier. Their job to keep watch.

Despite himself, Icorax couldn't help but feel he was taking the easy way out.

He left at dawn.

There was not much ceremony, though most of the dragons in the area came to see him off. He stood at the edge of the cliffside, staring out at the sea, and felt them behind him.

"Please," Emeri called. He recognized her voice. "Don't do this. Don't go. There has to be another way."

Icorax unfurled his wings; they spread along the entire cliff's edge, casting a shadow on the rest of the Watch. "There is not," he said, "but do not mourn. I am doing this for Sornieth. But I am not a martyr. I am not a sacrifice. This is my duty, to the land, to its people."

"We'll -"

"No." He knew what she would say - maybe they could kill it. "We cannot kill it, little one. We cannot fight it. We must only defend against it, until some such day as our ranks our vast enough to endure its assaults and strike back. But that day is not today, and it will not be for many years."

He turned his head, ever so slightly, enough to just barely catch sight of the young mirror out of the corner of his eye. "Someday," he said, "you will do this. I know you will."

There was nothing more to say; he crouched, then launched himself off the edge of the cliff, wings sweeping downwards. The leathery sails caught the morning air and swept him upwards in a thunderous gust of wind.

The Watch buried their lost members at sea, or burned them. Either way, when a Watchmember died, they were sent away, away to their next life. Away from everything. There was a ritual around it, several of them. Chants and prayers for those lost, treatments of the body, a laying down of the lost dragon's possessions and things that represented them in life.

As he passed over the ocean, he could hear behind him the voices of the dragons raised in song - the song for the dead.

It took several days for Icorax to find it, but when he did, he could feel that he'd gotten close by the deep disturbance in his soul. It had been a feeling mounting since the day before.

_ What is this? _

It was below him. He looked down and saw only the surface of the waves; the monstrosity was below. Below, in the depths, somewhere, it crawled its way across the seabed, tearing the silt into storms and devouring anything it could find. A mindless, thoughtless abomination.

_ Flamecaller, Lightweaver, _ he thought - the deity whose power burned in him, and the deity who had created his kind - _ let me fulfill my goal. Let me do as my purpose demands. Let me save my home from this... thing. _

It was below. He could almost see the gleam of light beneath the waves, even from this distance. But it wasn't going to come up; it didn't need to breathe. So he would have to go to it.

Fitting. He had to die anyways.

Icorax swept in a wide circle above the center of the wrongness. He had all the time he wanted to prepare.

He didn't need much.

One circle, and then he turned, rolling over, and dove. He folded his wings and streaked downwards into the water. He hit with enough force to tear at his scales, and felt it flood his eyes, but he spread his wings and began to swim downwards as best he could, holding his breath. He had to be close enough that it would take him. He had - he had to be close enough, or it would all be for nothing.

Downwards. He forced himself into the water, feeling the pressure begin to mount as the minutes passed. His lungs began to ache, and he felt his internal fire struggling, panicking. It didn't want to be quenched, drowned, but he was going to do that.

He hoped that the monster could kill him before the water did. Drowning, he knew, was not fun.

Icorax lost all sense of up and down, and was forced more than once to huff out a bubble to see where it went, and swim in the opposite direction. How far down was this thing?!

He found out when it opened one pair of brilliant eyes and caught him in them, completely frozen. They were golden-yellow and burning with light.

Then another set opened, this one pure white, shedding frost every time they blinked, though one of them looked to be pierced.

Then a third set, a deep green.

Then a fourth, clear electric blue.

Icorax floated frozen in the water, terrified, as nine sets of eyes opened, in a brilliant array of colors - and then, below them all, a tenth set, of deep, deep blue - two eyes staring and a third, vertical, between them. The vertical eye… Icorax didn’t recognize its color, a pale, sickly white-green, glowing on black. The eyes were massive, distorted, overgrown, set deep into the creature’s chest.

The only eyes he didn't see were the purple of shadow. The water rumbled, shaking around him; it took him a few seconds of flattening down his ears to realize it was with words.

"Hmm," the emperor dragon said, a flicker of pale green in every one of its eyes, "another failure come to take us to the grave."

_ It can speak?! _

No - no! Emperors were mindless. They always were! This was some new devilry. Icorax felt a surge of fear in his chest, and flailed, moving backwards, wings scooping the water. Suddenly, he wanted to escape. He had to tell the Watch about this somehow. The Watch didn’t know it could _ speak. _

"Fool," it snarled. "We are already beyond it."

The only sensation Icorax had was of the water moving around him, and then he felt the teeth of a larger head crunch into his midsection, shattering his wing bones.

_ No, _ he thought, desperately. _ I must - I must warn the - _

Another set of jaws moved forwards, out of the turbid dark. He realized the Shadow-aligned head had been the one that had crept up on him from behind. He felt seawater caress his exposed innards.

Jaws closed around his neck.

  


-

  


Emeri felt Icorax's death. So did everyone else, but she felt it like a lightning bolt, and as soon as it had hit her she’d fled the roost and made her way to a clifftop, where she sat in the rain and wailed. For days.

Her mentor, the dragon she'd looked up to, was gone. Gone, gone, gone. She felt his life snuff out like a candle in the face of a storm, and there was nothing she could do about it.

She'd tried to follow, tried to go with him in case he needed help, or could be talked out of his mission - she had. She had! But Icorax's wings carried him far further than hers did, even with all the wind she could possibly summon, and she'd been forced to turn back not even half a day into the journey, muscles aching. Not even in all her exalted fights had she come close to the kind of strain she endured in the Watch. 

Here she was again just a youngling, almost a child just sent to serve.

Out there, somewhere, was a monster, and it had killed her mentor.

Emeri raised herself to her fullest, digging her claws into the soil, and screamed at the sky. It thundered above her. It did not care. _ Father, _ she shrieked, to her deity, the god of the uncaring sky above her, _ why! Why did you take him from all of us! Why did you let this happen! _

But of course, her deity did not answer. None of them did. And it wasn't their fault - they weren't responsible for the creation of that horrible beast, out there in the sea. The one that, by Gha'agya's reports, was still headed their way, not even slowed or stopped by Icorax's sacrifice. The deities were not in charge of this. Maybe they'd even fight it, if it threatened Sornieth.

She could give in to fury and hatred, turn on the Watch, desert them all. But she wouldn't - Icorax wouldn't have liked that. Thunder rumbled overhead. Emeri felt the power of the land in her claws, pulsing around her. Her own Grace responded in kind - the power granted to her by the Watch - and she remembered Icorax saying something about the Grace choosing a successor for him.

“Icorax,” she whispered, “you never picked a new captain.”

The waves crashed below; she could feel her Grace within, churning with equal energy.

"Guide me," she whispered, into the rain. "Guide me."

Her power swelled. She looked up, out to the sea, and saw on the horizon a spot of writhing static in the direction of the enemy. How did she know which direction it was? It was the way Icorax had gone, but she could - she could sense something out there. She hadn't been able to see that before. Was this - was Icorax's passing.... helping her?

Emeri blinked rainwater out of her eyes. Her secondary sight didn't detect anything different, but she could see plain as day with her eyes the disturbance in reality out there.

She raked furrows into the mud. "I'll destroy it," she promised. "I will. You told me I could do it. I will. I will, Icorax. For you. For everyone."

Around her, she felt the air fizzle with warmth. Her power. Her strength. Her determination. Her future.

"I'll save us all."

  


-

  


"Welcome, fool."

_ What? _

"Wondering? Curious?" A laugh, from many mouths, discordant and rotting. The voice was multiple, speaking in unison. "You planned to do this. We know your thoughts. You are part of us, now."

_ ...no. No. Why am I - _ Icorax, with a start, realized he could still think. He was not dead. Or - was he?

"You are part of us. We are together, now. There is no you. There is only us. And we will continue." The voices sighed. "There was a plan, yes? You have succeeded. We can no longer simply enter the land of our birth and consume what we are owed."

_ I... succeeded? _

"In part. We are not dismayed. We have greater plans."

_ I must warn the Watch - ! _

Laughter again. "You cannot warn anything. You do not exist. There is only us."

Icorax could not move. He could not see. No - wait. He could see. It's just that there was only darkness.

"Hold still. We rise. Then we will see."

He stayed still, because he had no choice, though he felt almost like he could move his head and neck. But - not the rest of him? No, he couldn't even feel it. Somewhere in his mind, he knew dully what had happened to him, but he couldn't comprehend it. He didn’t want to comprehend it.

"We will fully join our thoughts together. We will wait until this happens. There is plenty of time."

_ No. Keep calling me you, you wretched mass, _ Icorax thought. _ I am no monster. _

"There is no you," the emperor said. The voice was oddly sing-song.

Light grew. Icorax began to be able to see the seafloor, churned by many clawing legs. He began to see tattered wings pushing at the water, in the corners of his vision. Water pumped through the emperor's rotted throats and lungs, spilling out the sides. Icorax could not feel his fire anymore.

"Why feel fear," the emperor said, as it - they - moved, "when you could feel wonder? Joy? Hunger? There is nothing to be afraid of. We are more powerful than all of our foes together, and they know this. We will triumph. We are in agreement of this."

It was right. Icorax could feel the boiling energy in the emperor's body, deeper in than him; it was beyond what he had expected, what he had feared, from this monster. It was powerful. _ The Watch… _

"We are one, we are many," the emperor hummed. One great head curled around, and Icorax pulled his own up, to see. Reflected in the glassy surface of one purple eye he could see his own reflection. One horn had been broken off, and one of his eyes was gone, gouged out. The other was dull, scummed over with sand and mud, dark and cloudy. It no longer burned with the Flamecaller's light.

“Listen,” the emperor hummed, “and sing with us. We are together, now.”

_ No, no, no, no, no. _

“Resist no more. We do not resist each other. We become each other.” The emperor sighed, a gust of water. “Join. Now.”

_ I am a Watch-captain. No, not anymore. But I am - I am Icorax. _ He had to hide his mind away or it would be lost. Frantically, he drew his thoughts together, trying to bury them deep, keep them safe. He felt a pressure on the boundaries of his thoughts.

"We are," the emperor said, "one. Many are one. One are many."

_ I am... Icorax, former Watch-captain, of.... of the Watch, from... I am from the, the... Blacksand Annex. We - no, I… _

"We are one. We are many. We are all."

_ I am… _

"We are all. We are power. We are absolute."

_ I... we… _

"We are everything."

_ We are… _

"We are power."

_ We are greatness. _

_ "We are Majesty." _


End file.
